Improving Manual Material Handling

Improving Material Handling eTool

Woman loading bags of materials.Manual handling of materials may expose workers to risk factors such as force, awkward postures, and repetitive motions that can lead to injuries, and wasted energy and time. To avoid these problems you can directly benefit from improving the fit between the demands of work and the capabilities of your workers by:

  • Planning the workflow to eliminate unnecessary lifting, lowering and carrying of materials
  • Organizing work so that physical demands and work pace increase gradually
  • Minimizing distances materials are lifted, lowered and carried
  • Reduce the frequency of lifting, lowering and carrying and the amount of time spent in these tasks by rotating workers through tasks
  • Clear spaces to improve access to materials being handled which allows workers to get closer and reduces reaching, bending and twisting

For more ideas to help you make improvements see below: